I'm happy to announce that the third Microlite74 Companion volume is now available for free download.

Microlite74 Companion III: More Optional Rules is the first Microlite74 Companion mainly written by someone other than myself. The vast majority of the material in this third Companion volume was written by Rachel Ghoul (Librarylass on our forum). Like the Microlite74 Companion I, this volume contains a large number of optional rules a GM may elect to include in a campaign. Each optional rules section is independent and can be included or excluded on its own. Most optional rules are usable with any of the three versions of Microlite74: Basic, Standard, or Extended. Here is a list of the optional rules sections in Companion III:

The Brown Box/Wee Warriors Cancer Fund Drive is on. 12 giveaway items (including a third printing Brown Box D&D and Wee Warriors items are available. High Donors will get get six (their choice), the rest will be raffled off with each $10 donating giving you one chance. You can see the complete list of 12 items and read more about this fund drive in this post: Brown Box D&D and Wee Warriors Goodies Available (For Cancer Fund Donors). This is in addition to the usual PDF downloads and other benefits of a donation to the RetrpoRoleplaying Cancer Fund. To get help us pay our cancer treatment related bills (and to get access to some special downloads and a chance at the above-mentioned items), send a donation in any amount -- small or large -- to me via Paypal. Thank you!

I'm happy to announce that the second Microlite74 Companion volume is now available for free download.

Microlite74 Companion II: Treasure contains a large number of magical items of treasure and a sample system for randomly determining what treasure is a given group of monsters has. With the publication of this Microlite74 3.0 Companion volume, Microlite74 becomes a complete and self-contained system with no need for the SRD or reference to other old school rules. This volume includes any classic treasure items as well as a few new items designed for the Microlite74 system. Microlite74 Companion II: Treasure can be used with any of the three versions of Microlite74: Basic, Standard, or Extended.

You can download a free copy of Microlite74 Companion II: Treasure from Mediafire. It is a 20 page PDF file and is about 480K.

Microlite74 Companion III: More Optional Rules should be available for download tomorrow or Friday.

The Brown Box/Wee Warriors Cancer Fund Drive is on. 12 giveaway items (including a third printing Brown Box D&D and Wee Warriors items are available. High Donors will get get six (their choice), the rest will be raffled off with each $10 donating giving you one chance. You can see the complete list of 12 items and read more about this fund drive in this post: Brown Box D&D and Wee Warriors Goodies Available (For Cancer Fund Donors). This is in addition to the usual PDF downloads and other benefits of a donation to the RetrpoRoleplaying Cancer Fund. To get help us pay our cancer treatment related bills (and to get access to some special downloads and a chance at the above-mentioned items), send a donation in any amount -- small or large -- to me via Paypal. Thank you!

Many people seem to think the D&D Fighter class is too weak, especially at higher levels. While I think this is less true in TSR versions of D&D, many people disagree. I've come up with two simple options for beefing up the damage a Fighter does, especially at higher levels. Neither has been playtested, but both look good on paper. If you feel the fighter needs beefing up, you might want to give one of these options a try. Both options are designed with old school D&D in mind, they would probably need modification to work in 3.x and might not even make sense in 4e.

Today's option is Weapon Mastery.

Weapon Mastery: At 1st, 4th, 8th, 12th, 16th and 20th level a fighter may select one specific type of weapon (e.g. dagger/knife, short sword, long sword, spear, short bow, etc) that he has mastered. When the fighter successful attacks with a weapon he has mastered he adds his level (but no more that his Strength attribute) to the damage the weapon does. Assuming critical hits (doing double damage) normally occur when a character rolls a natural 20 that would hit, a fighter using a weapon he has mastered does a critical hit on a natural 19 or a natural 20 (again, provided the roll would hit). A fighter always hits on a natural 20 with a mastered weapon even if that roll would not normally hit.

Note: Only the Fighter class should get Weapon Mastery. Fighter sub-classes or other fighter-like classes should not.

This has the effect of ramping up the damage a Fighter can do as his level increases and gives the Fighter a 10% of a possible critical hit (double the standard 5% chance), at least when the fighter is using a type of weapon he has mastered. This also means that a fighter, when using a weapon he's mastered, always has at least a 5% chance to hit any target, even if the fighter is first level and is attacking some demon with an AC of -7 (26 Ascending AC).

Tomorrow, another option.The Brown Box/Wee Warriors Cancer Fund Drive is on. 12 giveaway items (including a third printing Brown Box D&D and Wee Warriors items are available. High Donors will get get six (their choice), the rest will be raffled off with each $10 donating giving you one chance. You can see the complete list of 12 items and read more about this fund drive in this post: Brown Box D&D and Wee Warriors Goodies Available (For Cancer Fund Donors). This is in addition to the usual PDF downloads and other benefits of a donation to the RetrpoRoleplaying Cancer Fund. To get help us pay our cancer treatment related bills (and to get access to some special downloads and a chance at the above-mentioned items), send a donation in any amount -- small or large -- to me via Paypal. Thank you!

I have been given some Steam Keys for games to give away to RetroRoleplaying Cancer Fund donors!

I have two keys for each of the following Steam Games:

Darwinia
Combining fast-paced action with strategic battle planning, Darwinia features a novel and intuitive control mechanism, a graphical style ripped from 80's retro classics like Tron and Defender, and a story concerning a tribe of nomadic sprites trapped in a modern 3D world.

Multiwinia
Challenge your opponent to a game of stick-man slaughter, and watch digital-war unfold, as your Multiwinian army struggles to complete a chosen task faster and better than your rival's. It's fast, it's furious, and only the flattest will survive!

Defcon
Inspired by the 1983 cult classic film, Wargames, DEFCON superbly evokes the tension, paranoia and suspicion of the Cold War era, playing on the fascinating aspects of psychological gameplay that occur during strategic nuclear warfare. You play a General hidden deep within an underground bunker. Your mission is to successfully exterminate your enemy's civilian population whilst saving your own.

Uplink
You play an Uplink Agent who makes a living by performing jobs for major corporations. Your tasks involve hacking into rival computer systems, stealing research data, sabotaging other companies, laundering money, erasing evidence, or framing innocent people.

I have one key for each of the following games:

Demigod
The all father has vanished, creating an opening in the pantheon. To fill the void, Demigods from across from the mortal world must wage war against one another in a bid to ascend to true godhood. Set in a magical world where gods walk among mortals, Demigod blends action, strategy and role-playing elements into a thrilling new experience. Select the Demigod that will lead your minions into battle and unleash the dogs of war against your rivals. Your Demigod will do whatever it takes in order to ascend to true godhood.

Hearts of Iron III
Hearts of Iron III lets you play the most engaging conflict in world history, World War 2, on all fronts as any country and through multiple different scenarios. Guide your nation to glory between 1936 and 1948 and wage war, conduct diplomacy and build your industry in the most detailed World War 2 game ever made.

Galactic Civilizations I: Ultimate Edition
Galactic Civilizations is a space based strategy game in which you are in control of humanity's destiny. The year is 2178, the Terran Alliance has invented a new technology -- Hyperdrive. But the secret has leaked to the other civilizations starting a race for all the inhabitable worlds in the galaxy! Galactic Civilizations I: Ultimate Edition combines the award-winning Galactic Civilizations with the Altarian Prophecy expansion pack to create a stellar adventure.

About King Arthur games: Welcome to the lost age of chivalry, where magic and myth is alive, and you are destined to be one of the living legends: Arthur, the son of Uther Pendragon, the Once and Future King of the prophecies. Fulfill your destiny and claim your rightful place on the throne of Britannia. Recruit fabled knights to your Round Table: send them to adventures or battles, let them gather knowledge and artifacts, see how they become the most powerful heroes of the realm. Build the majestic Camelot, but beware: there will be enemies, both mortal and otherworldly that will try to destroy you. Send your heroes and their followers to battle with legendary warriors and monsters and see how the folk of the faeries and the saints set against wizards and evil knights.

How I will give away these Steam Keys:

First, I will give the Steam key for the set of four King Arthur games to the first person to donate at least $60 to the Retroroleplaying Cancer Fund. Earliest qualifying donation (by the Paypal time stamp) get the Steam Key. First come, first served, no refunds.

Second I will give give a Demigod, Hearts of Iron III, or Galactic Civilizations I Steam key to the first three people to donate at least $30 to the Retroroleplaying Cancer Fund. First come, first served, while they last, no refunds.

Finally, I will give a Darwinia, Multiwinia, Defcon, or Uplink Steam key to the first eight people to donate at least $10 to the Retroroleplaying Cancer Fund. First come, first served, while they last, no refunds.

Important Notes About This Giveaway:

These games require Steam and likely only work on Windows. Follow the above links for more info on the games and system requirements for each.

Note that you can only qualify for one Steam Key. If are the first person to donate $60 or more you get the King Arthur games (not the King Arthur games, and one of the second set and one of the first set). You may list the games in the order (first to last) you would be interested in them in the notes area of the Paypal donation and I will try to accommodate you desires. Earliest donations (by the Paypal time stamp) get first pick. If you don't list choices, I will select at random. If you list games, be sure to list the games in the lower donation brackets in case all the ones in your bracket are gone.

These Steam keys were given to me by my cousin who I trust not to have already used them, but I cannot guarantee they will work.

First come, first served. No refunds (you giving a donation, folks -- not buying a game).

These games are in addition to usual RetrpoRoleplaying Cancer Fund donor goodies and your donations qualify for chances for giveaway items in our current donation drive (see below for info).

This Steam Key offer starts when this message is posted to my blog and expires March 1st. After March 1st, any Steam keys not yet given away will be used by my cousin.

The Brown Box/Wee Warriors Cancer Fund Drive is on. 12 giveaway items (including a third printing Brown Box D&D and Wee Warriors items are available. High Donors will get get six (their choice), the rest will be raffled off with each $10 donating giving you one chance. You can see the complete list of 12 items and read more about this fund drive in this post: Brown Box D&D and Wee Warriors Goodies Available (For Cancer Fund Donors). This is in addition to the usual PDF downloads and other benefits of a donation to the RetrpoRoleplaying Cancer Fund. To get help us pay our cancer treatment related bills (and to get access to some special downloads and a chance at the above-mentioned items), send a donation in any amount -- small or large -- to me via Paypal. Thank you!

Random Wizard has done another set of very interesting interviews with former TSR employees: This time Jennell Jaquays talks about working for Judges Guild (and working on Dark Tower), TSR, ID Games, etc. and Clyde Caldwell talks about working at TSR in the 1980s.

The Brown Box/Wee Warriors Cancer Fund Drive is on. 12 giveaway items (including a third printing Brown Box D&D and Wee Warriors items are available. High Donors will get get six (their choice), the rest will be raffled off with each $10 donating giving you one chance. You can see the complete list of 12 items and read more about this fund drive in this post: Brown Box D&D and Wee Warriors Goodies Available (For Cancer Fund Donors). This is in addition to the usual PDF downloads and other benefits of a donation to the RetrpoRoleplaying Cancer Fund. To get help us pay our cancer treatment related bills (and to get access to some special downloads and a chance at the above-mentioned items), send a donation in any amount -- small or large -- to me via Paypal. Thank you!

I mentioned in this post, New Free Microlite74 Releases Planned for 2013, that I was clearing my schedule to devote time to my Gryphons & Gramarye project and promised more information later. I've finally managed to put my thoughts together well enough to make a post.

First, everyone -- except me -- hates the Gryphons & Gramarye name. My players have convinced me to change the name of the project (and the resulting game) to Lords & Wizards. The focus of the project has also changed. There's really no reason to add just add my house rules to Swords & Wizardry and call it a new game. I know I have had a large number of requests for this, but it has always seemed somewhat silly to me. Just about any GM with a few sessions experience with S&W should be able to find the house rules in Microlite74 Extended and add the ones they are interested in to S&W. Conversion is so simple it is practically a no brainer. My players have convinced that simply adding my house rules to S&W is really as much of a waste of time as I originally thought it was. Gryphons & Gramarye will now by a short supplement to S&W with my house rules.

They have instead want me to take Swords & Wizardry White Box as a starting point and add material to it until I end up with that strange combination of 0e and 1e I used in the late 1970s as the three original 1e core books were released one book a year. This sounds like a more interesting project, but it is really little more than Swords & Wizardry Complete with my house rules and the 1e monster and spell lists.

However, this suggestion gave me an idea. What if I combine that "strange combination of 0e and 1e I used in the late 1970s" with some of the ideas from B/X -- especially topping out at level 14 (and thus avoiding the higher levels where 1e begins to show balance issues that even people like me who do not consider balance a core design goal can't help but notice that there are problems). What if I also added some of the more interesting ideas from Microlite74 (like Experience Base) and other OGL retrogames (like the simple "stones" encumbrance system, weapon damage by class, etc.) to the mix? After thinking about this a while, I decided that this could be an interesting system to both design and play and the new Lords & Wizards project was born. My Sunday Game group likes this idea so much they want to convert our current Microlite74 Extended campaign to Lords & Wizards as soon as I get the basic system roughed out enough to use. That will probably take a month or two, but I'm excited and can't wait to get started. All I've done so far is to think a lot and produce the cover mockup pictured above.

There will, of course, be a lot more information on this project in the coming weeks. Lords & Wizards will be another free game from RetroRoleplaying.com. However, there may be a print copy available through Lulu or Drivethrurpg for people who want a hard copy.

The Brown Box/Wee Warriors Cancer Fund Drive is on. 12 giveaway items (including a third printing Brown Box D&D and Wee Warriors items are available. High Donors will get get six (their choice), the rest will be raffled off with each $10 donating giving you one chance. You can see the complete list of 12 items and read more about this fund drive in this post: Brown Box D&D and Wee Warriors Goodies Available (For Cancer Fund Donors). This is in addition to the usual PDF downloads and other benefits of a donation to the RetrpoRoleplaying Cancer Fund. To get help us pay our cancer treatment related bills (and to get access to some special downloads and a chance at the above-mentioned items), send a donation in any amount -- small or large -- to me via Paypal. Thank you!

If you have been reading this blog, you know we are in the middle of the Brown Box/Wee Warriors Cancer Fund Drive with a third printing brown box copy of OD&D as one of the giveaway items. Nothing has changed there, but you may remember that we had a donated 4th printing White Box set of OD&D (and some other items) offered in our last drive, provided we raised at least $2000. We fell short of that goal and Todd (the donor) kept his items. Earlier this week he emailed me and asked if the combined amount raised from this drive and the last drive had hit $2000 yet. I told him that it had and he wants to give the his set of OD&D away in a slightly modified version of the original plan.

Originally, Todd wanted me to take the three highest donors (from last year's Holiday drive) and have them guess a number between 1 and 100 and he would have mailed his giveaway items to the donor who came closest to the number he has selected. The new procedure is similar. I'm to have the five highest donors from both the Holiday Drive from last year and this current drive through midnight CST on Saturday (that's five donors total, not five from each drive), have them select a number between 1 and 100 and Todd will mail his giveaway items to the person who comes closest to the number he has selected. This will be in addition to the items I have set as donor items for this current fund drive. That is, the winner of Todd's items will still be eligible for all the giveaway items in the current Brown Box/Wee Warriors Cancer Fund Drive.

Todd says that all the booklets are in very good shape, except for the Arduin Grimoire which has a couple of pages loose in the center. The box is in so-so shape ("It's not falling apart...yet.") While from Todd's descriptions, none of these items are going to appeal to collectors, they sound like nice copies of some fairly rare TSR/D&D material for play use.

I will email the top 5 donors on Sunday and request that they pick a number. When I get all five number selections back, I'll forward them to Todd (sans names) and he will tell me which number came closest to his selection. I will then give Todd the lucky person's email address and Todd will contact the person to arrange mailing the above listed items to them. At the moment it is still possible to get in the top five donors without breaking the bank account -- but the donation has to hit the PayPal account by midnight Saturday night/Sunday morning. See below for donation info.

Finally, I'd like to thank Todd again for adding these items to this donation drive -- especially after the Holiday goal fell short. That's going way above and beyond.

The Brown Box/Wee Warriors Cancer Fund Drive is on. 12 giveaway items (including a third printing Brown Box D&D and Wee Warriors items are available. High Donors will get get six (their choice), the rest will be raffled off with each $10 donating giving you one chance. You can see the complete list of 12 items and read more about this fund drive in this post: Brown Box D&D and Wee Warriors Goodies Available (For Cancer Fund Donors). This is in addition to the usual PDF downloads and other benefits of a donation to the RetrpoRoleplaying Cancer Fund. To get help us pay our cancer treatment related bills (and to get access to some special downloads and a chance at the above-mentioned items), send a donation in any amount -- small or large -- to me via Paypal. Thank you!

A promised Monday in this post, drafts of Microlite74 Companion IV: Bestiary of Monsters and Microlite74 Companion V: First Edition Spells are available for download. While these are labeled as drafts, the only thing preventing me from listing them as "release candidates" is that I have not had time to completely proofread them and a few minor formatting changes need to be made.

At the present time these files are only available to RetroRoleplaying Cancer Fund donors using the standard donor password for files. Both of these Microlite74 Companion volumes should be released (for free as usual) in March -- assuming no major upheavals in real life over the next coup of weeks. This means four Microlite74 Companion volumes should be released over the next few weeks.

The Brown Box/Wee Warriors Cancer Fund Drive is on. 12 giveaway items (including a third printing Brown Box D&D and Wee Warriors items are available. High Donors will get get six (their choice), the rest will be raffled off with each $10 donating giving you one chance. You can see the complete list of 12 items and read more about this fund drive in this post: Brown Box D&D and Wee Warriors Goodies Available (For Cancer Fund Donors). This is in addition to the usual PDF downloads and other benefits of a donation to the RetrpoRoleplaying Cancer Fund. To get help us pay our cancer treatment related bills (and to get access to some special downloads and a chance at the above-mentioned items), send a donation in any amount -- small or large -- to me via Paypal. Thank you!

WOTC is going to release a premium-priced reprint of White Box OD&D (6th printing, I assume given the "White Box" reference) in late November for US$149.99. According to the blurb at WOTC, you get the three original booklets, Greyhawk, Blackmoor, Edritch Wizardy, and Gods, Demi-Gods, and Heroes, apparently with new cover art. From the picture this comes in a fancy wood box with some fancy dice (although neither are mentioned in the description.

Personal Opinion (which may be biased because I have the set I bought in the 1970s): While this may please collectors, it is not going to get the game played. Few people are going to pay $150 for this and actually use it at their table. Also, for $150 it should (at least) include a copy of Chainmail 3rd Edition and Swords & Spells. Color me not at that impressed, but then I buy games to play, not as collector's items.

The Brown Box/Wee Warriors Cancer Fund Drive is on. 12 giveaway items (including a third printing Brown Box D&D and Wee Warriors items are available. High Donors will get get six (their choice), the rest will be raffled off with each $10 donating giving you one chance. You can see the complete list of 12 items and read more about this fund drive in this post: Brown Box D&D and Wee Warriors Goodies Available (For Cancer Fund Donors). This is in addition to the usual PDF downloads and other benefits of a donation to the RetrpoRoleplaying Cancer Fund. To get help us pay our cancer treatment related bills (and to get access to some special downloads and a chance at the above-mentioned items), send a donation in any amount -- small or large -- to me via Paypal. Thank you!

Microlite74 Companion II: Treasure: Turns Microlite74 into a more complete system by providing magic treasures suitable for the Microlite74 system. Planned Publication: no later than early March 2013.
Microlite74 Companion III: More Optional Rules: A large collection of optional rules including many optional classes and races for Microlite74. Planned Publication: no later than early March 2013.

Microlite74 Companion IV: Bestiary of Monsters: More detailed description of standard monsters including many "first edition" monsters. This Companion volume is taken from early work on the Microlite74 Plus project (a long term project which currently has no predicted release date). Planned Publication: no later than early April 2013.

Microlite74 Companion V: First Edition Spells: This Companion volume provides alternate spell lists and fairly detailed spell descriptions from the first edition of the world's most popular RPG. Using these spells instead of those in the Standard (or Extended) version of Microlite74 will give your campaign a "first edition" feel as opposed to a "original edition" feel. This Companion volume is taken from early work on the Microlite74 Plus project (a long term project which currently has no predicted release date). Planned Publication: no later than early April 2013.

An early draft of Companion IV and Companion V should appear in the donor download area (available to RetroRoleplaying Cancer Fund donors) in the next day or two.

Speaking of donor downloada, I will probably produce a third volume of the digest-sized Microlite74 3.0 Extended Special Edition (available only to RetroRoleplaying Cancer Fund donors) from the treasure material in Companion II sometime in the next few months. This would make the donor Special Edition a complete game.

Work will continue on Microlite74 Plus as other projects permit, but Microlite74 Plus will remain a "back burner" project. I do not expect even have a public beta release until sometime in 2014.

There are no other Microlite74 projects currently planned for 2013 release. However, if someone produces enough material for Microlite74 Companion (as Rachel/LibraryLass did last year), another project could be added. I will be spending the majority of my design time this year working on the Gryphons & Gramarye project. But that's for another post.

The Brown Box/Wee Warriors Cancer Fund Drive is on. 12 giveaway items (including a third printing Brown Box D&D and Wee Warriors items are available. High Donors will get get six (their choice), the rest will be raffled off with each $10 donating giving you one chance. You can see the complete list of 12 items and read more about this fund drive in this post: Brown Box D&D and Wee Warriors Goodies Available (For Cancer Fund Donors). This is in addition to the usual PDF downloads and other benefits of a donation to the RetroRoleplaying Cancer Fund. To get help us pay our cancer treatment related bills (and to get access to some special downloads and a chance at the above-mentioned items), send a donation in any amount -- small or large -- to me via Paypal. Thank you!

A release candidate for Microlite74 Companion II: Treasure is now available. For the moment it is only available for Retroroleplaying Cancer Fund donors in the usual donor download area. The Compasnion Volume contains a large number of magical items of treasure and a sample system for randomly determining what treasure is a given group of monsters has. With the publication of this Microlite73 3.0 Companion volume, Microlite74 will become a complete and self-contained system with no need for the SRD or reference to other old school rules. This volume includes any classic treasure items as well as a few new items designed for the Microlite74 system.

Here's a link to the Microlite74 Companion II release candidate download. Note that a password (which donors are given) is required to download this file:

The Brown Box/Wee Warriors Cancer Fund Drive is on. 12 giveaway items (including a third printing Brown Box D&D and Wee Warriors items are available. High Donors will get get six (their choice), the rest will be raffled off with each $10 donating giving you one chance. You can see the complete list of 12 items and read more about this fund drive in this post: Brown Box D&D and Wee Warriors Goodies Available (For Cancer Fund Donors). This is in addition to the usual PDF downloads and other benefits of a donation to the RetrpoRoleplaying Cancer Fund. To get help us pay our cancer treatment related bills (and to get access to some special downloads and a chance at the above-mentioned items), send a donation in any amount -- small or large -- to me via Paypal. Thank you!

Hollow Earth Expedition isn't considered an old school game, but the premise sounds interesting and I've heard good reports about the game. However, the PDF version is $19.99 -- about twice the maximum I'm willing to pay for a PDF copy of a game -- especially one I'm buying "on spec." It is supposedly "pulp done right", but the fact that the description says the system "emphasizes storytelling" has always made me even more reluctant to part with money. I can't however, turn down free. I just got a copy for free. You can too. Exile Game Studio is offering a free copy of the Hollow Earth Expedition core rules PDF for Valentine's Day. Here's the link to the free download on DriveThruRPG from the Exile Game Studio's Facebook page. The link will only work on Valentine's Day.

Here's the description of the game:

First we discovered that the Earth is round.

Then we discovered that it’s hollow.

Now we must keep its secrets from falling into the wrong hands.

Explore one of the world’s greatest and most dangerous secrets: the Hollow Earth, a savage land filled with dinosaurs, lost civilizations, and ferocious savages! Players take on the roles of two-fisted adventurers, eager academics and intrepid journalists investigating the mysteries of the Hollow Earth. Meanwhile, on the surface, world powers and secret societies vie for control of what may be the most important discovery in all of human history.

Set in the tense and tumultuous 1930s, the action-filled Hollow Earth Expedition is inspired by the literary works of genre giants Edgar Rice Burroughs, Jules Verne, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The subterranean action is powered by Ubiquity, an innovative roleplaying system that emphasizes storytelling and cinematic action.

The Brown Box/Wee Warriors Cancer Fund Drive is on. 12 giveaway items (including a third printing Brown Box D&D and Wee Warriors items are available. High Donors will get get six (their choice), the rest will be raffled off with each $10 donating giving you one chance. You can see the complete list of 12 items and read more about this fund drive in this post: Brown Box D&D and Wee Warriors Goodies Available (For Cancer Fund Donors). This is in addition to the usual PDF downloads and other benefits of a donation to the RetrpoRoleplaying Cancer Fund. To get help us pay our cancer treatment related bills (and to get access to some special downloads and a chance at the above-mentioned items), send a donation in any amount -- small or large -- to me via Paypal. Thank you!

A release candidate for Microlite74 Companion III: More Optional Rules is now available. For the moment it is only available for Retroroleplaying Cancer Fund donors in the usual donor download area. I hope to have a release candidate of Microlite74 Companion II: Treasure available in the next 72 hours -- assuming real life does not blow up on me like it did this morning. Here is a list of the optional rules sections currently in Companion III:

The Brown Box/Wee Warriors Cancer Fund Drive is on. 12 giveaway items (including a third printing Brown Box D&D and Wee Warriors items are available. High Donors will get get six (their choice), the rest will be raffled off with each $10 donating giving you one chance. You can see the complete list of 12 items and read more about this fund drive in this post: Brown Box D&D and Wee Warriors Goodies Available (For Cancer Fund Donors). This is in addition to the usual PDF downloads and other benefits of a donation to the RetrpoRoleplaying Cancer Fund. To get help us pay our cancer treatment related bills (and to get access to some special downloads and a chance at the above-mentioned items), send a donation in any amount -- small or large -- to me via Paypal. Thank you!

It looks like WOTC has released this week's PDFs. The first one to catch my attention is DA2 Temple of the Frog (for BECMI). TSR lured Dave Arneson back in the mid-1980s to co-write four Blackmoor-based modules, the "DA" series. All for were excellent adventures that did a good job of bringing Blackmoor to live. The second module, DA2, revisited the Temple of the Frog. It was the first adventure TSR published, in about 20 pages of the Blackmoor supplement to original D&D. It was the first published dungeon many early players of D&D ever saw -- myself included.

The DA2 version is updated and expanded. Unlike many attempts to redo a classic, this one actually succeeds. Here's the back cover description:

Green Death...

That's what old hands call the Great Dismal Swamp. For centuries, this tangled maze of sluggish watercourses, stagnant ponds, and festering marshes has defended Blackmoor's southwestern frontier. Large armies and smaller parties have disappeared altogether inside its vast, dripping, claustrophobic corridors.

Among those who have dropped from sigh in this arboral hell is young Rissa Aleford, one of Blackmoor's most important leaders. Carried off to the sinister City of the Fron, she is now being held by the eccentric Monks of the Swamp. By making the baroness captive, the deranged monks have serioulsy weakened Blackmoor at a time when enemies already threaten it from all sides.

Yet, even as the Froggies gloat, the king of Blackmoor dispatches a small band of bold adventures to the rescue. Deep into the Great Dismal Swamp they must go ? far from sunlight and sanity? there to seek and save the Swamp. There to find? the Temple of the Frog.

Temple of the Frog, like all four DA modules, is excellent, It's well with the $4.99 for the PDF.

The only other item that really catches my eye this week is L1 The Secret of Bone Hill (for AD&D 1e), the first part of the L series -- an excellent series of adventures aimed at new characters/new players.

The Brown Box/Wee Warriors Cancer Fund Drive is on. 12 giveaway items (including a third printing Brown Box D&D and Wee Warriors items are available. High Donors will get get six (their choice), the rest will be raffled off with each $10 donating giving you one chance. You can see the complete list of 12 items and read more about this fund drive in this post: Brown Box D&D and Wee Warriors Goodies Available (For Cancer Fund Donors). This is in addition to the usual PDF downloads and other benefits of a donation to the RetrpoRoleplaying Cancer Fund. To get help us pay our cancer treatment related bills (and to get access to some special downloads and a chance at the above-mentioned items), send a donation in any amount -- small or large -- to me via Paypal. Thank you!

One of my Sunday Game players printed out the latest draft version of Gryphons & Gramarye, read it, and sparked quite a discussion after yesterday's game. He thinks I would be better off working from the Whitebox version of S&W instead of the Core Rules version that I'm using now.

His reasons:

S&W Whitebox is a more basic set of rules so it would be easier to work my system changes into the system.

S&W Whitebox has already spun off a large number of variants. As most of them are OGL it would be easy to create a "frankengame" with the best of what others have done combined with my house rules. This would make the game more of a different game than what it is now which might make it more appealing.

He pointed out that we've been playing for over three years and all PCs are still under 10th level. Why go to the trouble of creating a game that can handle high level spells and characters when most old school players enjoy low and mid-level play most. Make those levels more interesting instead of trying to add higher levels than many, if not most, will never use.

As Whitebox is a much less complex game than Core or Complete, it lets itself to the Microlite74 "many optional rules" treatment.

Layout-wise, a Whitebox based game would be less trouble to create. It might even be possible to do it in 3-4 digest-sized books just like 0e.

To my surprise, most of my Sunday Game players came around to this POV after 30-40 minutes of discussion. I'm a bit reluctant due to all the work over already done, but have to admit that much of what I've done could probably be plugged directly into a Whitebox version with few changes and I am intrigued by the possibilities he mentioned.

I'm interested in more diverse opinions, however. Namely, your opinions. Which do you think would made a better Gryphons & Gramarye RPG: the current Core S&W with my house rules and few other changes version or a S&W Whitebox based version with my house rules and the best (IMHO) of other OGL Whitebox variants and, perhaps, a set of optional rules.

The Brown Box/Wee Warriors Cancer Fund Drive is on. 12 giveaway items (including a third printing Brown Box D&D and Wee Warriors items are available. High Donors will get get six (their choice), the rest will be raffled off with each $10 donating giving you one chance. You can see the complete list of 12 items and read more about this fund drive in this post: Brown Box D&D and Wee Warriors Goodies Available (For Cancer Fund Donors). This is in addition to the usual PDF downloads and other benefits of a donation to the RetrpoRoleplaying Cancer Fund. To get help us pay our cancer treatment related bills (and to get access to some special downloads and a chance at the above-mentioned items), send a donation in any amount -- small or large -- to me via Paypal. Thank you!

In a new thread over at theRPGsite entitled Your favorite game sucks. Tell me why. that is for listing problems with your favorite games, LibraryLass said the the following about Microlite74:

Microlite74's minimalism is beautiful, but it also puts a lot on the DM's shoulders. There's simply no time for flavor either.

You know what? Both are true. The second doesn't matter much to me. It's hard to put flavor into a set of rules that are intended to be used in many different settings and for many different styles of play -- even more so when you are trying to keep the rules very short and to the point. Putting a lot on DM's shoulders is much more of an issue. What could I add to Microlite74 that couple in a page or two of M74's fine print help take some of the burden off of the DM's shoulders?

If think flavor is more important than I do, I'm open to suggestions that do not involve narrowing the game setting-wise or play-style-wise.

The best place to discuss this is probably this thread on the RetroRoleplaying Forum, but I'm posting this here as well for comments in case you have some suggestions but do not want to join yet another forum.

The Brown Box/Wee Warriors Cancer Fund Drive is on. 12 giveaway items (including a third printing Brown Box D&D and Wee Warriors items are available. High Donors will get get six (their choice), the rest will be raffled off with each $10 donating giving you one chance. You can see the complete list of 12 items and read more about this fund drive in this post: Brown Box D&D and Wee Warriors Goodies Available (For Cancer Fund Donors). This is in addition to the usual PDF downloads and other benefits of a donation to the RetrpoRoleplaying Cancer Fund. To get help us pay our cancer treatment related bills (and to get access to some special downloads and a chance at the above-mentioned items), send a donation in any amount -- small or large -- to me via Paypal. Thank you!

The Brown Box/Wee Warriors Cancer Fund Drive is on. 12 giveaway items (including a third printing Brown Box D&D and Wee Warriors items are available. High Donors will get get six (their choice), the rest will be raffled off with each $10 donating giving you one chance. You can see the complete list of 12 items and read more about this fund drive in this post: Brown Box D&D and Wee Warriors Goodies Available (For Cancer Fund Donors). This is in addition to the usual PDF downloads and other benefits of a donation to the RetrpoRoleplaying Cancer Fund. To get help us pay our cancer treatment related bills (and to get access to some special downloads and a chance at the above-mentioned items), send a donation in any amount -- small or large -- to me via Paypal. Thank you!

With the return of some of the TSR PDFs, it is possible to spend a very small amount of money and get a lot of play value with the B/X version of "Classic D&D". The Basic and Expert rulebooks are $5 each. Ten dollars gives you all the rules you will ever need to play TSR D&D. Sure, you can get Labyrinth Lord (a B/X retroclone) for free (in a no artwork PDF), but nothing really beat the original Moldvay and Cook rulebooks for Classic D&D. A total of 128 pages of rules, spells, monsters, art, and GM advice for both dungeon and wilderness adventures. That's right, in only 128 pages.

Other than dice, you don't need to buy anything else to play. However, if you want to get started quickly, you might want to pick up a couple of adventure modules. The traditional starting modules are either B1 - In Search of the Unknown or B2 - The Keep on the Borderlands. Both are excellent adventures and are set up to teach both players and GMs about old school play. B2 is generally the more popular these days. However, I'm going to recommend B1 because fewer people are familiar with it and because it is easier to drop it into B10 - Night's Dark Terror. B10 was one of the best adventures TSR produced. Designed for levels 2 to 4, B10 provided a sandbox setting covering about 20,000 square miles with a number of adventure sites and dungeons scattered about in this 64 page adventure and room for the GM to add many more interesting locations after the material in the adventure is used up. B1 and B10 are also $5.00 each. So for a total of $20.00 you can get a complete set of old school rules, a starting dungeon and a campaign setting with an adventure. I don't think you can beat this deal with a stick.

The Brown Box/Wee Warriors Cancer Fund Drive is on. 12 giveaway items (including a third printing Brown Box D&D and Wee Warriors items are available. High Donors will get get six (their choice), the rest will be raffled off with each $10 donating giving you one chance. You can see the complete list of 12 items and read more about this fund drive in this post: Brown Box D&D and Wee Warriors Goodies Available (For Cancer Fund Donors). This is in addition to the usual PDF downloads and other benefits of a donation to the RetrpoRoleplaying Cancer Fund. To get help us pay our cancer treatment related bills (and to get access to some special downloads and a chance at the above-mentioned items), send a donation in any amount -- small or large -- to me via Paypal. Thank you!

It's been a good long while since I had my own items to give away in a RetroRoleplaying Cancer Fund Drive. What fund drive we have had in the last couple of years have depended on others to provide items to give away. However, thanks to a bequest of old RPG games from a long time former playing in my games (see this post: Received Five Boxes of Old RPG (mainly D&D) Items), I have a nice set of items that I can give away. I might be able to make more money selling them on eBay, but eBay has become more and more hostile to small sellers in recent years and I don't want to have to deal with either Ebay or the tax issues selling things there bring. I'd rather give these items away in a RetroRoleplaying Cancer Find Drive, so that's what I'm doing.

As most readers know, my wife had oral cancer and that I worked on the original Microlite74 as way to cope during her recovery from 6 weeks of radiation treatment in 2008. We are some of the 40 to 50 million people in the US who do not have health insurance and do not qualify for government aid as we live in Texas and have no children. The cancer treatments and related expenses have cost over $120,000 so far. While almost three-quarters of this has been absorbed by hospital foundations or paid by previous fund drives, monthly payments by us, and the like, we still owe quite a bit. Worse, last month, my wife developed an open sore on her tongue that would not go away. It turned out to be nothing more than a sore (which is now slowly fading away), but it triggered over $1700 in tests and doctor visits. It was a very stressful month and left us with no savings and without money to pay some of our basic bills this month.

Everyone who donates anything at all (even a dollar) to the RetroRoleplaying Cancer Fund gets access to a few special downloads (like pdfs of two 1970s D&D fanzines I edited, a special edition of Microlite74, and more) as described on the RetroRoleplaying Cancer Fund web page as well as in progress draft downloads of my current projects). However, what you are probably most interested in are the special donor goodies....

Special Donor Goodies for the February 2013 RetroRoleplaying Cancer Fund Drive (Mainly Original D&D Items)

Anyone who donates during the next month -- now through March 18, 2013 (may be extended -- and has been to April 8th) -- will be eligible for some extra goodies in addition to the special downloads everyone who donates gets. The following items will be given away:

I've included links to these items on the Tome of Treasures (RPGGeek for the magazines) as some of these items are rare enough that you may not have heard of them. Heck, I had not heard of The Strategic Preview until I saw them in one of the boxes from Jay. The Acaeum has good information as well, but it is more focused on collectible value/printing differences than on what the item actually is about.

These items will be given away to first to high donors (the high donor gets his choice of 3 items, the second highest donor gets his choice of two items from those remaining, the third highest donor gets his choice of one item from those remaining). Any ties will be broken with TSR/OD&D trivia questions. The remaining 6 items will be raffled off: for every $10 a person donates, they will receive one chance for each item in this raffle.

The combination of items for the three highest donors and raffled items should give everyone a chance at a decent giveaway item, even if they can't afford to donate a lot. As always, everyone who donates any amount (even just a dollar) gets access to these special PDF downloads: The Grimoire #1, The Grimoire #2, Microlite74 2.0 Special Edition, Hidden Valley House Rules (B/X D&D), and more and access to the donor area of the new RetroRoleplaying Forum. This drive is scheduled to end in a month, on March 4th, 2013 but may be extended to March 18th.

Finally, there's our Dragon Bonus Giveaway: a set of the first five issues of The Dragon magazine will be raffled off on February 17th provided we have reached $750 in donations by February 15th.

If you would like to help but cannot make a donation, please help spread the word around the blogsphere (and other places). In fact, if you make a post to your blog talking about this fundraising drive and post a link to your post in a comment to this post, we'll give you one entry in the raffle. Note: Your blog will have to have some way for us to email you if you get lucky or will will not be able to get your prize to you. I still have not been able to pass Mind Reading 101.

To get help us pay our cancer treatment related bills (and to get access to some special downloads and possibly the above mentioned items), send a donation in any amount -- small or large -- to me via Paypal. My apologies for having to ask for donations and my heartfelt thanks to everyone who donates. If you cannot donate but wish to help, please spread the word about my request and offer. Thanks in advance for any and all help.

The high donor in the drive will get to select three of these items, the second highest donor will then get to select two items, and the third highest donor will then get to select an item. The remaining items 6 items will be raffled off to donors with one chance for every $10 donated. Additionally, a set of the first five issues of The Dragon magazine will be in the raffle. Lots of very nice and fairly hard to get items this time. I'll have a formal announcement later today or tomorrow with more information, but the drive begins now. As usual, these items are in addition to the usual PDF downloads and other benefits of a donation to the RetrpoRoleplaying Cancer Fund. To get help us pay our cancer treatment related bills (and to get access to some special downloads and possibly the above mentioned donor giveaway items), send a donation in any amount -- small or large -- to me via Paypal.

A friend of mine who played in my 1970s D&D games and PBM campaigns through most of the 1980s (he was in the military, retired after over 30 years) died early last year -- from a heart attack at the relatively young at age 64. Like a lot of old friends who had been separated by distance we had dropped to occasional phone calls and birthday/Christmas cards. The fact that I was still in Texas and he had retired to the Alaskan boondocks (without reliable Internet access) had a lot to do with that.

He left me much of his collection of tabletop RPGs -- supposedly everything his son did not want. This bequest had slipped my mind so I was surprised to get five medium to large size boxes in the mail yesterday from his son. Five boxes full of lots of games from the 1970s and 1980s. It turned out all Todd kept was the stuff he had grown up playing: the 2nd edition D&D stuff (5 more boxes of stuff, Todd said), an apparently huge collection of White Wolf World of Darkness games that I did not even know Jay had, and a small number of other games from the 1990s. All the older stuff he boxed up and set to me even though he suspected that I probably had a lot of it.

I've started to look through all this material. It looks like all the early (say, pre-1980) TSR stuff is there including the brown box copy of D&D I gave Jay for a birthday present. There's a Guideon Games edition of Chainmail (And Tractics, of all things). There is lot of Wee Warriors stuff (their three adventures and more), copies of The Strategic Review, early issues of The Dragon and White Dwarf, just about everything (I think) Judges Guild ever published, Gamelords Thieves' Guild packets, Traveller stuff, Runequest stuff, first edition C&S stuff, Tunnels & Trolls (various editions) and modules, Superhero 2044, High Fantasy hardbacks, Legacy, Adventures in Fantasy, Castle Perilous, lots of fanzines (Traveller, D&D, EPT), Arduin Grimoires, Palladium stuff, photocopied (?) tournament modules, TFT, and probably more stuff as it is just all mixed in together. And Todd told me he shipped eight boxes so there are three more boxes to come.

My wife is not really happy to see all this stuff as she made me promise when we got married that my already large collection of gaming material would not grow much -- one of the reason why I am now a big fan of PDFs. I have promised her that I will use the better items as donor goodies for RetroRoleplaying Cancer Fund drives this year and that I will give away or sell all the duplicates of things I already have. I suspect my Sunday group (or those who choose to play today rather than watch the Superbowl) will be happy to learn that they get first choice any of the stuff I can't really use as donor items -- starting with a bunch of Judge's Guild items. I'll also be starting a donation drive tomorrow or Tuesday. If figure if I start out by demonstrating that I really am not planning on keeping all this stuff, my wife will actually believe me. At the moment, I don't think she does. The way my eyes probably lit up as I was flipping through this boxes probably had something to do with this. Jay would probably have found that hilarious and egged her on.

WOTC is releasing TSR era products as PDFs again on DNDClassics/RPGNow/DriveThruRPG. To review these games there, you have to buy a copy there. This helps to prevent fake reviews. However, it also prevents the large number of gamers who already own these products in TSR era hard copies from reviewing them. I've set up boards for reviews and comments on these products on the new RetroRoleplaying Forum (a renamed and redesigned version of the Microlite74 forum). New products threads will be added as my time allows, but I already have most of the Classic D&D (B/X and BECMI) and first edition AD&D releases currently available listed. Please feel free to join the RetroRoleplaying Forum and leave your reviews, comments and experiences with these products for others to read and benefit from. These threads will soon be linked to each products page on the Game Systems area of the RetroRoleplaying web site.

There's a greater thread on theRPGSite where people are converting classes, races, and monsters from (mainly) WOTC D&D to old school (TSR) editions of D&D is this thread: Oldschool Conversions of Post-Oldschool Material. There is some good (if untested) stuff in this thread. From the first couple of pages of messages: The Warlord (Fighter Subclass); Ape, Giant, Carnivorous; Serpent Anathema; Harrier (Fighter Subclass); Bladewing; Warforged (race); Arcadian Avenger; Bladerager Troll; Sithilar; Dragonborn (race); and Tiefling (race). There are four additional pages of posted material -- and growing. There are lots of good ideas here.